Table of Contents From the President OKHT 2001 Bike Handling Class Refugee Mission Mammoth Cave Overnight LBC Awards Banquet

From the President
Betwixt and Between

I’m writing this article on the weekend that the weather changed. You know, when it’s too cold to wear short-sleeved jerseys and bike shorts, but too warm for tights and a windbreaker. Burn up wearing the balaclava or go without and freeze your ears off.

This is the in-between time when your body’s memory still hasn’t forgotten the heady warm days of summer and your senses are picking up the unmistakable — and dreaded — signs of the approaching winter. (My enjoyment of really hot weather has increased over the years, which I’ve decided has more to do with advancing arthritis than age, even if these two are highly correlated.)

Try as I might it’s hard to make peace with this in-between time. So, for a while, I’ll arrive with a jumble of long-sleeved jersey, tights, racing shells, and two weights of jackets and gloves, which will make the too-short time between my arrival at the ride start and the scheduled departure even shorter.

Anticipating the shock to the system, no doubt, is worse than the shock itself. Like taking a shower in an unheated room or that first dip in the ocean. I’ve heard the fall weather described as crisp, making it sound like something everyone likes. It’s not as if I’ve got a delicate constitution (within the limits bounded by age and conditioning). And it’s not that I don’t ride in the cold. I’ll be fine in December and January, when crisp has become cold.

But I do need is a strategy for the in-between time. So I called Joe Ward, who, as a 24-year veteran of year-round commuting to his job as a reporter at the Courier-Journal, must have developed one for all seasons.

Joe acknowledged that riding at this time of year is more difficult than at other times. His advice: Start out underdressed. His strategy: “Just keep the wind off you for about a mile and before you know it you’ll be warm.”

In other words, suck it up and get over it. Good practical advice for cycling during the in-between times but not the magic bullet I was looking for to avoid that slap of cold, not tolerate it.

And that’s exactly what I’ll be trying to do. Under my avoidance strategy, for the next few months look for me in the heat of the day, which in Kentucky, generally arrives at about 3 p.m. No morning rides. And it comes with a bonus: I get to sleep in on the weekends, enjoy leisurely breakfasts with long cups of coffee and the paper. It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it.